Pionic helium In this experiment, a pion – shown here with one orange and one blue particle representing its quark and anti-quark – replaces one of the two electrons in the helium atom. This new ...

How big is a helium atom? Or maybe the better question is: How small? After an intricate game of particle jockeying, physicists have now measured the radius of the helium nucleus five times more ...

When most of us picture an atom, we think about a small nucleus made of protons and neutrons orbited by one or more electrons. We view these electrons as point-like while rapidly orbiting the nucleus.

Although it makes up everything we see and touch around us, ordinary matter only accounts for about 15 percent of the mass of the universe. The other 85 percent is believed to be dark matter, a ...

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. and BUFFALO, N.Y. — Helium, the second lightest element in the universe, has a variety of uses, from keeping balloons afloat to cooling superconducting magnets. It is also a noble ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. The Universe is out there, waiting for you to discover it. In a huge announcement this week, scientists gathered together from a ...

Helium, the most noble of the noble gases, long thought to be completely inert and thus too standoffish to bond with other atoms, recently surprised chemists by forming chemical compounds after all.

Physicists, who dedicate their lives to studying the topic, don’t actually seem to like physics very much since they’re always hoping it’s broken. But we’ll have to forgive them; finding out that a ...